As cellular phones and other mobile devices have become increasingly prevalent and used more widely, vehicle drivers or operators have increasingly used the phones and devices while driving vehicles. It is well known that cell phone usage by a vehicle driver can distract the driver's attention and can lead to accidents, speeding, and other negative effects. In fact, reports exist of a strong association between traffic accidents and cell phone usage. For these reasons, jurisdictions in some countries have prohibited the use of cell phones while driving a vehicle, with or without a hands-free device.
It can be difficult to detect cell phone usage by a driver without a human, such as a law enforcement officer, explicitly seeing the driver using the cell phone. However, because law enforcement officers cannot be positioned at a large number of surveillance positions, and because the law enforcement officers will not always be looking for cell phone usage, there can be a lot of cell phone usage by vehicle operators that can go unnoticed. As a result, traffic accidents caused by cell phone usage can remain prevalent.
Therefore, it may be desirable to have systems and methods for the automatic detection of cell phone usage by vehicle operators. In particular, it may be desirable to use imaging techniques to perform material and object classification to make a robust detection of cell phone usage by vehicle operators.